60 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO n 



" Ah me! celestial Guide, thy words impart 



Ills undeserved, that rend the nascent heart! 



O, Goddess, say, if brighter scenes improve 



Air-breathing tribes, and births of sexual love?" 



The smiling Fair obeys the inquiring Muse, 



And in sweet tones her grateful task pursues. 220 



" Now on broad pinions from the realms above 

 Descending CUPID seeks the Cyprian grove; 

 To his wide arms enamour'd PSYCHE springs, 

 And clasps her lover with aurelian wings. 

 A purple sash across His shoulder bends, 

 And fringed with gold the quiver'd shafts suspends; 

 The bending bow obeys the silken string, 

 And, as he steps, the silver arrows ring. 



Enamoured Psyche, 1.223, A butterfly was the ancient emblem of 

 the soul after death as rising from the tomb of its former state, and 

 becoming a winged inhabitant of air from an insect creeping upon 

 earth. At length the wings only were given to a beautiful nymph 

 under the name of Psyche, which is the greek word for the soul, and 

 also became afterwards to signify a butterfly probably from the po- 

 pularity of this allegory. Many allegorical designs of Cupid or Love 

 warming a butterfly or the Soul with his torch may be seen in Spence's 

 Polymetis, and a beautiful one of their marriage in Bryant's Mytho- 

 logy ; from which this description is in part taken. 



